New Year's Eve celebrations around the world: as it happened

Fireworks, party poppers and champagne at the ready: join us as we celebrate
New Year's Eve celebrations around the world.

• Australia, China, India welcomes in the New Year• Revellers around the world prepare to celebrate 2013• Venezuela cancels celebrations as Hugo Chavez health flags• Britain expects washout New Year as flooding countinues• Record turnout expected for Hogmanay in Edinburgh

00.15 Happy New Year to everyone, from the live bloggers here at the Telegraph.

00.01 Big Ben and the London Eye in London just after midnight

23.52JONATHAN POW New Year's revellers in York, where the banks of the river Ouse burst after today's heavy rain

23.14 Crowds gather on Westminster Bridge in London

23.10 Our Madrid correspondent Fiona Govan sends this from the Spanish capital:"In Puerta del Sol, the square at the heart of Madrid, crowds have gathered in the rain to celebrate New Year, peering from beneath their umbrellas at the clock tower that will ring in 2013.

"In Spain the tradition is to place a grape in one's month on each of the twelve chimes at midnight to ensure good luck for the New Year. People are clutching their handfuls of grapes and their bottles of Cava in anticipation. It's freezing...and wet."

22.58 Mayor of London gets ready to party.

<noframe>Twitter: MoL presents - Fireworks are ready, crowds are here and music is playing. It's time to round off an amazing year! <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=LondonNYE" target="_blank">#LondonNYE</a></noframe>

22.50 Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, who are headlining Edinburgh's Concert in the Gardens, tells BBC Reporting Scotland: "We have played some iconic gigs, like Live Aid, but I think when they built Edinburgh, they built it with Hogmanay in mind, because it's perfect for this kind of event."

22.23 Hogmanay celebrations have kicked off in Edinburgh. Pete Irvine, artistic director, says: "It's really, really busy here tonight - probably busier than we've seen it in some time because the weather is so good.

"There's a moon in the sky, it's actually not cold and it's not raining.

"We've been very lucky with the weather and I think we are going to be very lucky with the crowd and all the performances tonight on many stages."

22.09 A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

21:45Italian tourists at Puerta del Sol in Madrid

21.38Red Square in Moscow

21:33 In downtown Dubai, the fireworks were centred aroung the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

The skyscraper is more than 828 metres high.

21.32 Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations

20.51 This New Year has been much better for Kenya's tourism industry than the last one. A year ago resorts along the country's Indian Ocean were taking a battering after Judith Tebbutt, a British social worker, was kidnapped from a luxury resort by Somali pirates. A Frenchwoman living on Lamu island, 60 miles south of Kenya's border with Somalia, had also been taken hostage.

Our correspondent Mike Pflanz is on Lamu tonight, and reports a very different picture now: "The resort, a playground for European royalty and Hollywood stars, was near empty then. Today, there is not a bed to free in the Swahili village's smart private houses and boutique hotels.

"Locals - mostly Muslims whose wives and mothers are dressed in full hijab - are gathered on the beach alongside Western tourists preparing to pop Champagne corks. Dhow captains, waiters and hotel owners are again preparing to celebrate a bumper festive season."

20.50NATO troops in Kabul see in the New Year

20.31 Crowds are already building up along the banks of the River Thames in central London for the ever-popular New Year fireworks display organised by Boris Johnson, the Mayor. This will cap off a packed year of celebrations in the capital, including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic Games.

The Metropolitan Police warns there will be long queues for public transport in parts of central London after midnight as people head home, and revellers are advised to avoid certain stations like Waterloo and Charing Cross if possible.

20.29

EPA Fireworks at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai

19.55

REUTERS Burmese people celebrate during the first ever public New Year countdown

19.52 North Korea also joined in with the New Year festivities. A year ago the reclusive country was in mourning over the death of its former leader, Kim Jong Il. Today it celebrated the accession of its new leader, Kim Jong Un, and the recent launch of a satellite into space by firing cannons in the capital Pyongyang at midnight and putting on a fireworks display over the Taedong River, the Associated Press reports.

19.23 Distressing news from London though on New Year's Eve. A Spanish tourist has been killed after being hit by a bus in London, according to the BBC.

<noframe>Twitter: BBC Breaking News - Spanish tourist dies after she, her daughter and son, are hit by a bus in London. Her children are in a stable condition, police say</noframe>

19.00 Pakistan joins their traditional rivals India in the new year. The One Pound Fish man, whose novelty song nearly hit #1 in the UK Christmas Charts (well not quite), has a message for us all.

<noframe>Twitter: One Pound Fish - hello everyone it is going to be new year for me here in pakistan in 5 minutes and then i will be sleeping. i want to wish everybody in the</noframe>

And more importantly, perhaps, depending on who you are, our Islamabad correspondent Rob Crilly, also wishes us all a happy new year.

<noframe>Twitter: Rob Crilly - Happy new year from Islamabad. No fireworks here as I'm inside the diplomatic enclave where explosives are banned</noframe>

Hotels, clubs and residents' associations in the Indian capital decided to cancel planned festivities and asked people to light candles to express their solidarity with the victim whose plight sparked public rallies for women's safety.

"Let there be no New Year celebrations across the country. It will be a major tribute to the departed soul," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general of the Confederation of All India Traders.

This picture from Mumbai, India, shows the lighting of an Old Man effigy which symbolises burning the past and getting ready to start a happy New Year without bad memories of the past:

AP

18.18 Fireworks over the Marina Bay in Singapore

REX

18.18 If you're Tunisian, don't count on celebrating New Year's with the same vigour as others.

Sheikh Beshir Ben Hassine, a hardline preacher from the Salafist movement that has achieved growing prominence since the Arab Spring, warned that the exchange of New Year's greetings is un-Islamic.

Sharing the feast days of the infidel or even sending them greetings to mark them is a big sin.

Wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year is forbidden by Islam.

18.11Venezuela has called off its public New Year's Eve festivities after the government said cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez had taken a turn for the worse.

The streets of Caracas were quiet as amid news Chavez had developed "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery on December 11 in Havana.

18.09 For a video look at how the Eastern Hemisphere is enjoying New Year's, look no further.

18.05 One person who will not be enjoying New Year's festivities tonight is Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state. She is expected to spend New Year's Eve in hospital after doctors discovered a blood clot linked to a concussion she suffered this month.

As Raf Sanchez, our Washington correspondent, explains, blood clots are sometimes linked to extensive air travel. In her four years as America's top diplomat Mrs Clinton has kept up a punishing schedule, visiting 112 countries and spending the equivalent of 86 days on her Boeing 757.

In 1998, while she was still First Lady, Mrs Clinton was admitted to hospital with a blood clot behind her knee. She was treated with blood thinners but later said the incident "was the most significant health scare I've ever had".

17.57 Revellers in Beijing celebrate

(Getty)

17.10 And celebrations are starting early in Germany, as revellers gather in Stuttgart to see in the new year

(EPA)

17.10 Fireworks are launched from the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan

(Getty)

16.34 Celebrations continue across Asia, with people gathering at Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers to see in the new year

(EPA)

16.34 Pictures are starting to come in from Hong Kong, where a huge firework display in Victoria Harbour helped welcome 2013

(AP)

16.01 It's not all doom and gloom on Wall Street: these traders have donned party glasses for the last day of 2012 trading on the New York Stock Exchange

(Getty)

15.42 Two pupils get ready to celebrate the New Year at a school in Jiangxi Province, China

(Rex)

15.32 As we reach the end of 2012, academics in the United States have come up with their annual list of the year's most annoying words. They suggest that "fiscal cliff", "trending" and "spoiler alert" are among the words and phrases that should be banned from the English language. What do you think? You can read more here.

15.10 In Japan, Shinto priests leave the worship hall of Meji Shrine after a ritual in preparation for the New Year. Some three million people are expected to visit the shrine to pray for their health, happiness and property during the first three days of 2013

(EPA)

15.10 Meanwhile, hundreds of people celebrate the traditional San Silvestre Swim at the Mlagros beach in Tarragona, northeastern Spain

(EPA)

14.30 Over on the other side of the Atlantic, there may be little for American politicians to celebrate this year. Our correspondent Raf Sanchez reports: "Washington DC is not famous for its night life at the best of times but this year the city is in the shadow of the $600 billion fiscal cliff. As the rest of the world is ringing in 2013, many on Capitol Hill will still be frantically working to reach a deal. If we get a breakthrough then it's time to party like it's 1999 (when Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress balanced the budget - keep up). If there's no deal, then there's only time for a couple of grim beers before we all go back to our desks in the morning."

13.30 Spectacular scenes across Sydney's famous Harbour

(Getty)

13.29 2013 will ring in the changes in very different ways around the world. Hung-over Russians will wake up to a "new and troubling reality" on New Year's Day, when beer becomes classified as an alcoholic drink for the very first time, reports Tom Parfitt in Moscow. Read the full story here.

13.19 Fireworks explode over Sydney Harbour as it turns midnight

(Reuters)

13.05 Lasers light up the sky above Victoria harbour in Hong Kong

(Getty)

13.04 Our Moscow correspondent, Tom Parftt, reports that Russian revellers are expected to gather in Red Square, where there will be a firework display over the Kremlin later. He writes: "In Moscow, where snow is falling as the temperature hovers around -7C, shoppers are making their last desperate purchases before rushing home to their families. New Year is a more important event for Russians than Christmas – a low-key event marked on January 7 according to the pre-revolutionary Julian calendar – and gifts are put under a tree on December 31st, just as they are in the West on December 25th."

12.49 Kylie Minogue was clearly getting into the New Year spirit when she tweeted this photo of her in Sydney earlier:

12.48 Take a brolly if you are seeing in the New Year outdoors in Britain tonight. Forecasters are warning that the UK's celebrations will be dampened by a continuation of the downpours that have soaked the country over the festive season. Many parts of England, Wales and Scotland remain under flood alerts, and some areas are expected to see as much as 33mm (1.3ins) of rain falling today. However, the start of 2013 is set to bring better news, as the weeks of heavy rain give way to cloud, dull skies and light showers.

12.40 Dancers take part in parade in Bali, Indonesia

(EPA)

12.31 Indian revellers celebrate in Amritsar

(Getty)

12.20 In Sydney crowds are gathering for traditionally one of the most spectacular New Year's Eve fireworks displays anywhere in the world. Lord Mayor Clover Moore said about 1.5 million spectators are expected. Those in place already include Melissa Sjostedt who has made the journey from Florida to see the festivities which she first read about a decade ago in National Geographic magazine.

12.05 Meanwhile Malcolm Moore, our Beijing correspondent, reminds us that the Chinese New Year - when the Year of the Dragon gives way to the Year of the Snake - takes place on February 9. Those who want to celebrate the western calendar are having to dig deep with the city's finest restaurants offering special menus at up to £150 a head.

12.00 Special cause for celebration at Myanmar - or Burma to you and me - where the country will see in the New Year with a grand fireworks display in a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.

Thousands were expected to attend the celebration at a large field in Yangon against the backdrop of the city's famed Shwedagon Pagoda, where the Myanmar public will get its chance to do what much of the world does every New Year's Eve.

Preparations for Myanmar's New Year celebrations (Reuters)

11.56 People take part in the celebrations under the Harbour Bridge

(Getty)

11.50 Celebrations are already underway in Sydney, where fireworks are lighting up the city's skyline for the 9pm family show

(Reuters)

11.30 In Pakistan Rob Crilly, our correspondent reports, the celebrations are being held amid tight security.

Pakistanis are sending their 2013 text message greetings several hours early in case the country's mobile phone networks are turned off later to prevent mobile phones being used to detonate bombs.

11.15 The Indian armed forces on Monday cancelled their New Year celebrations while many hotels and bars scaled back parties in the wake of the gang-rape which has shocked the nation.

The Indian army, air force and navy have decided to cancel all the parties planned to welcome the new year. They want to dedicate the last day of the year to the gang-rape victim," a senior defence ministry official told AFP.

In the capital, where the horrific crime took place on December 16, leading private members' club Gymkhana, where top officials and ministers are often seen, cancelled its party as did the Press Club in the capital.

The five-star Ashoka hotel in New Delhi also closed its popular nightclub, while other bar owners were quoted in the media as saying they were scaling back festivities.

A student prays during a vigil in Ahmedabad (Reuters)

11.10In Auckland the celebrations are well underway with Kiwis being serenaded by "Legendary New Zealand funk rockers Supergroove" - no I haven't heard of them either.

11.00 Welcome to the Telegraph's Live Blog as we brace ourselves for 2013.